152 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



to neglect. There was a time when it was urged as 

 a duty to plant trees for posterity ; but so many 

 improvements have been made in hastening the 

 maturity of fruit trees, and the growth is forced so 

 rapidly by high culture, that trees soon attain a 

 large size and become productive, and as a natural 

 consequence, they will be short-lived. 



This change is an improvement, and in future 

 cvei-y generation must plant for themselves. The 

 peach comes into bearing early, and after producing 

 a few crops, it gencrallj^ declines ; but this is no 

 objection to its cultivation, for it holds out the pros- 

 pect of an early return for labor expended. We 

 must plant corn, potatoes, peas, beans, &c., every 

 year; and this is no objection to their cultivation; 

 on the contrarj^ it affords the farmer greater facility 

 for their production, than if they were perennial 

 plants, and required ten or fifteen years to come into 

 bearing. 



MANAGEMENT OF STABLES. 



The great desideratum in a stable is ventilation. 

 A horse requires air equally with his master ; and 

 the latter requires a chimney to his sleej^ing apart- 

 ment ; so does the former. The chimney may be a 

 mere outlet, opening through the ceiling, or it may 

 be formed as a dome or cupola. It should not, of 

 course, be open at the to^D, or rain will get in, but 

 roofed over, and an opeuiiig at the sides by weather 

 boards. Besides this, there should bo openings in 

 the walls near the ground, but not in the stalls. This 

 will produce a thorough air. It may bo so placed as 

 not to expose the horses to draught. The stable 

 should not be less than twelve feet high, fronr floor 

 to ceiling, and the former should be well paved, 

 slope slightly backwards, and along the back of the 

 stalls should run a gutter about a font wide, and an 

 inch or two deep. No stables should be less than 

 eighteen feet deep, and each stall should be at least 

 six feet clear ; but if eight feet can be afforded, so 

 much the better. Although some horses will agree 

 when kept together in one stall, it is far better to 

 give each a stall to himself. The manger should be 

 about sixteen inches deep, the same from front to 

 back, narrower at bottom than at top, and two feet 

 in length. The rack is best closed in front, the back 

 part being an inclined plane of wood, sloping gradu- 

 ally towards the front, and terminating about two 

 feet down. This rack effecte a considerable saving 

 in hay ; for we need scarcely remind our readers 

 that, in the common rack, much of the hay given is 

 trampled in the litter. It also prevents the hay seed 

 from falling into the horse's eyes, for the rack, such 

 as we recommended, is on a level with the manger, 

 and about three feet from the ground. Another 

 advantage also gained by this rack is the facility 

 with v.'hich it can be filled, thus obviating all neces- 

 sity for a loft over the stable, and, consequently, 

 admitting of a greater height of ceiling, as well as 

 superior ventilation. The windows and doors should 

 be at the opposite ends ; this promotes ventilation ; 

 the former at the south-east extremity of the build- 

 ing ; the latter should be divided transversely, like an 

 ordinary barn door, at the height of about four feet 

 from the ground. The door portion may thus be 

 occasionally open. Whitewash is a bad dressing for 

 the interior of a stable, as it causes too great glare 

 of light ; paint of a leaden color is best ; it can be 

 washed from time to time with soap and Avater. 

 There should be a bin, divided properly into parti- 

 tions, for oats, beans, &c., and this is better at the 

 back of the stable, and may bo made to answer the 

 purpose, both as regards utility and ornament, of a 



seat. A few buckets of water dashed over the floor of 

 the stables while the horses are at work, or, if hunters, 

 at exercise, will keep all sweet. The litter should also 

 be turned out to dry, or a bit of fresh straw spread 

 for the horses to stand on. A shed placed beside 

 the stable is a great advantage, on two accounts ; it 

 admits of the litter being dressed and the horse 

 dressed there in wet or stormy Avcather. A little 

 powdered gypsum strewn upon the stable floor, wUl 

 also act by absorbing the arnmoniacal gas — a frequent 

 predisposing cause of ophthalmia. Should the am- 

 monia, however, have accumulated in any c^uantity, 

 the speediest and most efhcacious remedy, as a disin- 

 fectant, is the laying down a plate, or dish, contain- 

 ing muriatic acid. — Maine Fanner. 



CHEMICAL COMBINATION. 



Another striking example of this chemical creation 

 is the protoxide of nitrogen, — called from its effects 

 the intoxicating gas, — a simple combination, in slight- 

 ly altered proportions, of the oxygen and nitrogen 

 composing the air we breathe, but nowhere existing 

 in nature under the form in which science presents 

 it to us. The admission, now generally made, that 

 atmospheric air is a simple intern>ixture of gases, 

 and not a chemical compound, scarcely abates the 

 wonder that so small a change in the proportion 

 which ministers to common life should become the 

 cause of those sudden and singular affections of the 

 brain and nervous system, which alter for a time the 

 whole condition of the being. Chemistry, however, 

 and especially organic chemistry, accustoms us to 

 these wonders. More strange and striking still, in 

 their properties recently discovered, are the two 

 creations of the laboratory — sulphuric ether and 

 chloroform. By working with and among the rela- 

 tive affinities of certain elements, man has obtained 

 those compounds, — and there may be others of kin- 

 dred quality, — the simple inhalation of which pro- 

 duces a state of insensibility to pain, even under 

 operations the most severe which surgery can inflict. 

 We have spoken much of chemical analysis. Tlxis is 

 in effect an analysis of the compound nature of man ; 

 the separation and the removal for a time of a part 

 of our sensitive existence — having close analogy 

 indeed to certain of the conditions of sleep, (itself the 

 great miracle and mystery of life,) but even more 

 striking in some of the inferences it conveys ; and 

 unless it be that bodily suffering is allotted to us for 

 moral uses — a discovery profuse of future benefit to 

 the human race. — Qaarlerly Review. 



QUERIES FOR SCIENTIFIC MEN. 



In what manner does diamond act upon glass so Rs 

 to cut it ? That it does not penetrate its substance 

 is obvious to any one who attends to its operations, 

 for it only divides the exceedingly attenuated pellicle 

 on the surface, and penetrates no deeper. The best 

 cut of a diamond is when it makes the least noise in 

 passing the line, and it cuts in the same manner the 

 thickest as well as the thinnest plates of glass. The 

 Encyclopicdia Americana says, thai; "it is very 

 remarkable that only the point of a natural crystal 

 can bo used ; cut or split diamonds scratch, but the 

 glass will not break along the scratch, as it does when 

 a natural crystal is used." Again, " the crack is often 

 found to follow the diamond after it hus passed sev- 

 eral inches. That it does not cut it by dividing the 

 pellicles is clear, because a piece of quartz will do 

 the same by passing in the same line repeatedly, yet 

 it will not break true. Then how does the diamond 

 act? Is it by electricity or galvanism, or the carbon 

 acting upon the compound of which glass is com- 

 posed ? " 



